Monday, July 18, 2005

Women's Driving: Do We Need Another King Faisal?

Last Friday, 118 Saudis had released a statement warning against the dangers of allowing women to drive. The list of the people who signed the statement included Sheikhs, imams, judges, Islamic scholars, Islamic university teachers, several heads of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice centers in the Kingdom, as well as some teachers at the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah.

The statement described the people who call for the right of women to drive as "the enemies of Islam." How could they make such an accusation? Please, I'm sick of this "conspiracy theories" crap!

The statement says, "[w]omen driving cars is not permissible because the ruling of 'closing doors that leads to corruption' applies to it directly." Oh my God, Not the "closing doors that leads to corruption" ruling again! They have been misusing this ruling for so long, and I can't believe how they are willing to keep on misusing it. If we were to apply this (باب سد الذرائع) ruling on everything, we will do nothing. Because everything, (repeat: everything), can leads to corruption. You can use a knife to kill somebody, or you can use it to make the best meal he ever had. This is non-sense.

"[N]o Islamic scholar or good figure in society has called for women to drive and that all those who have been calling for them to drive are people who tend to damage the image of Islamic women," the statement concluded. I want to know what the hell they mean by "good figure"? Are they implying all academics, writers, and government officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, who called for the right of women to drive, are trying to damage the image of Muslim woman?

If we looked back in history, we will see clearly that these guys who signed the statement are the same kind of people who opposed King Faisal 30 years ago when he decided to start girls' education in the country. They are using the same language, and the same lame excuses. What happened then? King Faisal said, "we will open the schools anyway, and if you don't want your daughters to study at our schools then don't let them." King Faisal was a wise man. He did not weaken to those people, and today, more than 55% of students in Saudi universities are females.

The list of signatories included no women. Abdul Aziz al-Qasim, a legal consultant, told Asharq al-Awsat that was normal because this type of people do not want women to appear and participate in the society. He added that their ideology is fundamentally against the existence of women.

Why would we let these people hold our country back? Why can't the government release a ruling allowing women to drive the same way King Faisal did? I am depressed. I am really depressed. #»